[extended Practice]Character Design(1)

I noticed that I have no reference on the clothing of dad in 1991 and also it was unclear what the police officers wore at that time. Therefore I asked my dad to send me pictures of him in 1991 thus start sketching the rough character design. He told me that his post did not need to wear uniform, partly because they are the 'secret police', wearing gun wherever they were. I can still remember how he took out all the bullets and let me and my sister played with a real gun! 

The key features in Hong Kong1991 was definitely the the hair; it seems like everyone had curly hair and curled up into a uncanny shape... a lot of volume and generally short hair for the officers; denim jeans or jacket, it was the basic fashion items everyone had at that time(I was told), and dad said he usually went to work with T-shirt and pair of jeans; clean design, there were no bold imageries or fancy patterns on the body, also usually plain colours. 

My dad's features are his signature brushy eyebrows and big glasses. I thought these features could make him stands out from the rest of his team(I do not have any references for the rest of the teammate therefore I will make sure their characters will not over shone my dad!) I also do not want to give the character eyes and nose. This is due to maintaining the brevity of the animation. At this point, I want the animation to be action and camera angle focused..Considering the scenes in the storyboard, there are only 2-3 shots there have close up of the characters, there are not many facial expression focused shots in the animation. Therefore I think getting rid of facial features might be a good way to comprehend the style and could also allow more imaginations from the audience. However this still need to be tested later. It might be possible to give the characters mouth or eyes when come to a close up shot.

Sketching outline from photos. I noticed how bad I am in life drawing but I really want to maintain this photogenic style through out the animation so I need to constantly practice drawing real people.

Sketching on blank paper. I managed to get the proportion of the head right but not the body! My anime style stretches the body too much and the head becomes so small and the legs are too long.

I try to use red pencil to correct myself and I could see where the problems are. Making a scale helps a lot and I am determined to keep drawing people in real life during the rest of this term!